


we get things wrong and we get better

by and_hera



Category: Greater Boston (Podcast)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Michael is gay, Post-Season/Series 03, Television Watching, Wolf 359, Wolf 359 spoilers, alexander danner and jeff van dreasen if you are reading this, guess what they're watching guys, i know it’s hilarious and i would actually be honored, louisa is a lesbian, you can read this fic i promise i won’t sue you if you’re accidentally influenced by it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera
Summary: “Wolf 359?” he asks, looking puzzled. He looks puzzled a lot. It’s almost endearing. “I thought we decided to watch Star Trek together, after the whole babysitting thing.”Louisa shrugs as she clicks on her name on their Netflix account. “Yeah, well, it’s still fresh,” she says. “I don’t want to rewatch just yet, y’know? Want to at least finish the series.”or, LA and MT watch a show together.
Relationships: Louisa Alvarez & Michael Tate
Kudos: 11





	we get things wrong and we get better

**Author's Note:**

> hi greater boston nation!  
> DON'T READ THIS FIC UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED WOLF 359 (through season 3 as of this chapter, chapter 2 will be about season 4) OR DON'T CARE ABOUT GETTING SPOILED FOR IT! LOTS OF SPOILERS!  
> ok now that that's out of the way! i listened to the babysitting episode today, and i'm always thinking about [theo's LA and MT art](https://twitter.com/commaperson/status/1279150444208676864?s=20) and i was Emotional and wrote this. this is super silly and dumb. i hope you enjoy!  
> title from w359 episode 41, memoria. of course.

Feeling sorry for people is something Louisa has experience with, because despite her flaws, she generally has her shit together while many others generally do not. Feeling sorry for herself is something new, though.

Well, okay, _no_ , she isn’t _sorry for herself_. It’s more of a general disappointment. You know, “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” that line, but to herself. Louisa Alvarez, detective, forensic photographer. Damn smart person. She spent months searching for Michael, and didn’t think to check his place of business? Stupid.

She decides to make it up to Michael, though. And he says he didn’t want to be found, yadda yadda, so she knows he had some great character development or whatever the fuck while he was in that _disgusting_ place, but he still almost died. So she’s going to make that up to him.

“Wolf 359?” he asks, looking puzzled. He looks puzzled a lot. It’s almost endearing. “I thought we decided to watch Star Trek together, after the whole babysitting thing.”

Louisa shrugs as she clicks on her name on their Netflix account. “Yeah, well, it’s still fresh,” she says. “I don’t want to rewatch just yet, y’know? Want to at least finish the series.”

Michael shrugs. “Alright,” he says. “I haven’t seen this one either, though, sooo…”

“Me neither!” Louisa replies. She shoots him a grin. “I keep meaning to get around to it, but I’ve just been so busy with Redline and Gemma asking me to break the law and all that shit. So.” She nudges him with her shoulder. “Thought we could have some _my best friend almost died and I couldn’t save him so now we’re watching a show together to bond_ time.”

“Louisa, I _told_ you that it wasn’t your fault, I didn’t want to be found-”

She puts a hand over his mouth. He licks it, because he’s a child. “Shut up,” she says. “We’re having bonding time.” She clicks play on the first episode. 

“Yeah, whatever,” Michael grumbles, but he’s smiling, and so’s Louisa.

* * *

They decide that they’re going to watch a few episodes each Tuesday and Thursday. Michael comes over to Louisa’s, or sometimes Louisa goes over to Michael’s, since he has a new apartment with all the money he’s accumulated and it’s honestly nicer than hers.

Louisa likes Minkowski the best, because she’s tough and smart and figures things out. Michael likes Hera best, because she’s smart in a different way than Minkowski and she’s always proving herself. Louisa makes a comment about Michael finding her cute during the scenes where the audience sees how Hera pictures herself, but Michael shrugs. “Not my type,” he says, and then he makes a comment about Louisa finding _Eiffel_ cute, to which she scrunches her nose.

“I don’t like scruffy guys,” she says.

“Good thing you don’t want to date me,” Michael replies. He winks, and she pushes his face away. “You know,” he continues, “I wonder if you could consider _Wendell_ -”

“I thought we agreed that talking about Wendell was off limits!”

“Shh,” Michael says, “we’re missing the show.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Minkowski’s talking to her husband, Louisa!” 

Louisa laughs. “I can’t believe she has a _husband_.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know!” Louisa gestures vaguely with her hands. “She just seems a little… you know?”

Michael looks at her blankly. “...you know?”

“Gay, Michael.”

“Oh,” he says, and nods sagely. “Yeah. Gotcha. Okay.” Then he thinks about it. “I don’t know, is she? How do you know?”

Louisa looks at him for a second before shrugging. “I don’t know. She just has the vibes, I guess?”

“Fair enough,” Michael says. He eats another spoonful of ice cream straight from the carton that they’re sharing. Minkowski’s still talking into the comms, hushed and quickly.

“What’s this episode called?” Louisa asks. 

“Am I Alone Now?”

“Huh. Interesting.”

“This show is really good, Louisa. I’m glad we’re watching this instead of Star Trek.”

Louisa opens her mouth and closes it abruptly before she does something stupid like defend fucking Star Trek. “Yeah,” she says. “Me too.”

* * *

“Michael,” Louisa says. “You brought a baby to our show night.”

Michael shrugs. Monty babbles, stretching his arms out to Louisa from where he sits comfortably in Michael’s arms. Louisa isn’t a _monster_ , so she takes him and bounces him a bit. “Michael,” she says, “the content warnings for this episode talk about harpoon violence.”

“What the hel- _heck_ is a harpoon?” Michael asks, shooting a look at Monty, and Louisa doesn’t even think he’s joking. “And why would they have them in space?”

Louisa makes a face that she hopes encapsulates her general emotion of _what the fuck Michael Monty’s a baby and we’re watching a violent show in space in which they threaten to kill each other a lot_. Michael makes a face in return that says something like _Monty is a tiny child he won’t understand anything that they say in the show and Gemma scared me into saying yes to babysitting_. 

“Fine,” Louisa concedes. She pats Monty on the back, who stares up at her with Charlotte’s eyes. “You wanna watch a space show?” she cooes. 

“I’m sure he’s thrilled,” Michael replies brightly as he goes to make popcorn.

When they sit down to watch the show, Louisa gives Monty a little truck to play with. He rolls it back and forth across Michael’s lap. The episode, of course, is very fun- in fact, Louisa might say it’s her favorite yet. Minkowski Commanding. She’s hunting down the plant monster living in the walls of the station. Louisa thinks… well, Louisa thinks Minkowski’s very interesting, that’s all.

“Do you think Gemma would like this show?” Louisa asks eventually, when Minkowski accidentally traps Eiffel in her trap and doesn’t bother to go get him. “I think she’d like this a lot.”

Michael shrugs. Monty tugs on his ear, and he just smiles at him. “Louisa, I’ve interacted with her like, four times total,” he says, “and most of those times have been her scaring me into doing things. Your friendship is great, but I have no fucking clue what she would like.”

Louisa shrugs. “Fair enough,” she says. “I think she would like this episode.”

Monty says something incomprehensible again, and Michael nods like he understands. Michael is good with kids. Louisa doesn’t want them, never has, but she thinks it’s very sweet that Michael does. She thinks that Michael would be a good dad someday.

“Holy shit,” Louisa says a few minutes later. Michael goes to yell at her for swearing in front of the baby, but then he looks at the screen. 

“Is that the one lady?” Michael asks.

“I thought she died!” Louisa exclaims. Monty punctuates her point by blowing a raspberry.

“Captain Isabel Lovelace,” Minkowski says once this woman walks on board, and Louisa might be in shock.

Michael laughs. “God, this is fun,” he says. “Isn’t it, Monty?”

Then Monty says something that sounds a little too much like the word _shit_ for Louisa’s liking, and she looks at Michael. “We didn’t teach him that,” she says immediately.

“It was Gemma,” he agrees.

* * *

Wolf 359 has mini-episodes as the series goes on. They’re usually a little different than normal ones, more monologue-y, but still good. Louisa really likes Variations on a Theme, a Lovelace centric mini-episode. Louisa… Louisa really likes Lovelace, to be honest.

“I broke up with Wendell,” she says casually, once they’ve moved to the next episode. 

Michael pauses the TV and looks at her with shock. “What? When?”

She shrugs. “Couple hours ago. Honestly, it wasn’t that huge of a deal. Not on bad terms or anything, you know.”

Michael nods slowly, eventually leaning back in his seat. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I know you guys have been together for a while.”

Louisa shrugs again. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I think we’ll be better off with other people, you know?”

“I guess I get that,” Michael says, and throws another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“I also think I’m a lesbian,” Louisa says, just as casually, and Michael chokes on the popcorn.

“Oh,” he says, after a moment of stammering, and she laughs.

“It’s okay, Michael,” she says. “I just wanted to let you know.”

He exhales. “Congrats?” he says weakly, and she pats him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, I don’t really know what to say-”

“It’s really okay,” she says, and she’s grinning without meaning to. “I wanted to tell you.” She raises her eyebrows. “I finally figured out why I got such a gay vibe from Minkowski. It makes sense now.”

Michael laughs, and bumps his shoulder into hers. “I guess you really don’t like scruffy guys, then,” he says.

* * *

**louisa alvarez > michael tate**

11:47 p.m.

 **louisa:** [Am I Gay?](https://www.arealme.com/gay-test/en/)

1:02 a.m.

 **louisa:** Michael?

 **louisa:** You alright?

1:13 a.m.

 **michael:** So I’ve been thinking about my relationship with Leon

* * *

“Did the star just-” Eiffel says on screen, not willing to finish his sentence. Michael pauses the show and just looks at Louisa.

“You know,” Michael begins.

“He would have _hated_ this,” Louisa agrees.

Michael lowers his voice. “There’s no sense to it! Where’s the scientific evidence that red dwarfs can go blue? I need to know why!”

Louisa, despite herself, laughs fondly. “Spot on,” she says. “Best Leon Stamatis impression ever seen.”

“I did live with the guy for a long time,” Michael says.

Louisa raises an eyebrow. “And you had a little gay crush on him?”

Michael rolls his eyes. Louisa elbows him repeatedly until he groans and unpauses it. Minkowski seems to agree with Eiffel, that their star has changed color, apparently.

“I wish he were here to see it,” Michael says, letting his voice be drowned out by the end credit music.

“I think he would be happy that we’re watching it together,” Louisa replies.

* * *

“Oh my God, did Lovelace just take shrapnel for Minkowski?” Michael says, eyes wide. “Maybe you were right, Louisa.”

“I’m always right,” she says instinctively. “But yeah, I know! This is fucking insane.”

* * *

“Eiffel?” Michael says softly. “Is- he can’t be.”

“He can’t be,” Louisa says, “because he’s the main character. He does the intro voice and everything.”

“I know we said we’d stop at the end of season two tonight, but-”

“Oh my God, hit next episode already,” Louisa agrees, this close to taking the remote for herself. Michael eventually hits next episode.

Just to spite Louisa, Minkowski does the intro voice. Louisa stands up and yells at the television screen.

* * *

Louisa pauses it eventually, because Michael looks like he needs to talk. 

Eiffel’s on screen, looking like hell, having barely survived all this time only to finally run out of supplies now. He’s going to die, and he’s giving one last speech to his radio, one last cry for help. And Louisa thinks that _might_ hit a little too close to home. It’s been a few months since Dimitri finally found Michael and brought him home, but as far as she knows, he _still_ hasn’t talked about it.

“Hey,” she says. “I-”

“It’s fine, Louisa,” he says. “Really. I’m alright. I know you think-”

“I _know_ you don’t want to talk about it, because you think it’s a burden on us, or whatever,” she interrupts, because she does that sometimes but only when it’s important, “but I want you to know that I’ll listen. If you want to talk about it.”

Michael sighs, and he leans back into the couch. “It’s just- it’s a lot,” he says. “Almost dying. It sticks with you, I guess.”

“I’d imagine,” Louisa says. “I- I mean. I doubt Officer Eiffel here is going to make it out of this without some long-lasting trauma. It’s okay if you didn’t either.”

Michael jerks his head in what might have been a nod, once. “Yeah, yeah,” he says. “I know.” And then he leans and rests his head on her shoulder, which is very sweet. “It was just really scary,” he says. “I don’t like to think about it. And I know you don’t, either, because you somehow think it’s your fault that you didn’t find me-”

“That’s not what I-” Louisa starts to say, but she cuts herself off with a huff. “I don’t think it’s _my fault_. I just think I… _should_ have found you. And you shouldn’t have had to write those letters to say goodbye, you know?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Michael says into her shoulder.

Louisa says, “I know it wasn’t, but I wish I could have helped. I’m _good_ at helping. I was a detective, Michael!”

“Girl detective Louisa Alvarez,” Michael says. “You know, I think there was a show in the 2000s about someone like that.”

“Veronica Mars?” Louisa replies. “Oh, totally. Hero of mine. But you know what I mean, right?”

“I think so,” Michael says. He sits up a little and puts an arm around your shoulder. “And you’re wrong. I didn’t want to be found, Louisa. I’m sorry I was gone.”

“I just- I missed you,” she says. “I missed you, and I couldn’t find you, and everything kept falling apart.”

“I missed you too,” Michael says. “And things are still falling apart. But we’ll put them back together, right?”

Louisa smiles. She hits play. “I hope so, she says.”

* * *

Someone answers Eiffel’s comms. Louisa doesn’t know if she trusts the guy who saves him, but he gets to go home.

* * *

“Let’s play chess, Captain Lovelace,” the new guy, Kepler, says. Louisa and Michael literally boo at the screen.

“God, he’s _so_ fucking annoying. Michael, if you tell me he’s hot or something, I swear to Mary and fucking Joseph-”

“No, no, you’re right!” Michael agrees. “He’s like… he’s fine. His like, frequent shouting and general shittiness ruin it.”

Louisa props her feet up on the coffee table in a huff. “They’re all kind of unsettling. Well, I like Maxwell.”

“You like her blue bangs.”

“I- yeah. That’s true.”

“You know,” Michael says as Maxwell says something or other to Hera, to Eiffel’s frustration, “if we were like, war criminals, we could be like Maxwell and Jacobi.”

Louisa laughs out loud. “What, because I’m smarter than you?”

“No! Well, a little bit. But like… we’re both… you know.”

Louisa looks at him. “Michael, it’s okay. You can say the word.”

“We’re both gay,” Michael says weakly. Louisa gives him a thumbs up.

“You’re right! If we were war criminals and I dyed some of my hair blue, maybe we could be Maxwell and Jacobi for Halloween.”

Michael grins. “We should! Either that or Minkowski and Eiffel.”

“Oh my God, you’re a genius.”

* * *

“Sometimes this show reminds me a lot of Lost,” Michael says at one point. It’s not even a significant moment. Louisa blinks.

“How so?”

“Like, this scene,” he says, gesturing to the bar that a Kepler and Jacobi of the past have found themselves in, “this is _super_ similar to like, this one flashback in season one of lost with Sawyer and Jack’s dad? Also, Eiffel _totally_ said ‘live together, die alone’ at one point, which is just one of his references and stuff, but it’s kinda fun.”

“I was actually thinking it’s a lot like Buffy,” Louisa replies. “Like, Minkowski is… a _lot_ like Buffy. And if I’m remembering correctly, 214 is Buffy and Willow’s college dorm number, and obviously it’s Hera’s unit number.”

“That’s so cool!” Michael says. “It is a newer show. I totally bet the writers took parts of other shows for inspiration.”

“Yeah!” Louisa sighs wistfully. “I just love Minkowski and Buffy a lot.”

“Okay, main character,” Michael teases. “I’ll be your supportive sidekick, then?”

Louisa laughs. “I guess so,” she says. 

* * *

“That’s the other thing about being a person,” Maxwell says. “We can’t just change who we are… but we get better. We get things wrong and we get better.”

Louisa knows she’s tearing up, and she thinks Michael might be, too. “You okay?” she says. “These last few episodes have been… a lot. With Eiffel, and…”

“I’m okay,” Michael says. “I have my numbers. I’m alright.” He sighs, and he takes Louisa’s hand. She squeezes it as Hera finally manages to break free and be present in the Hephaestus.

Louisa says, “she’s right, you know. I think she’s right.”

“Yeah,” Michael replies. “I think so, too.”

* * *

“Jesus Christ,” Louisa says. “ _Two_ Jacobis? I’m annoyed enough with one!”

* * *

“I think this is going to go really badly,” Louisa says.

“I agree,” Michael says.

“Thank you for watching this show with me,” Louisa says solemnly. “It has been a pleasure. I am going to die during the two part finale.”

“Once again, I agree.”

Louisa shakes Michael’s hand, and he laughs, and she laughs because really she’s more excited than anything to see where season three ends up. “Are you ready?”

“I think so,” Michael replies. “Should I get my trench coat?”

Louisa blinks. “What? Why?”

“It’s my emotional support trench coat?”

“Oh my God. Get the fucking trench coat.”

* * *

Something explodes, and a gunshot goes off, and Louisa and Michael are _both_ standing up and shouting at the TV.

“Did she just fucking-”

“Oh my God, is Hilbert fucking dead?”

“Minkowski? _Minkowski_?”

“She didn’t. No way she did. There’s no way-”

“You…” Jacobi says, sounding angry and upset. And they see Minkowski standing with a gun in her hands, only looking more horrified than she did before.

“ _No way_ ,” Louisa all but yells. “She fucking killed Maxwell! Oh my God!”

“I’m- holy fuck, this is _insane_ ,” Michael says, pacing back and forth in place. “I’m- what the fuck?”

“This fucking rebellion has a higher body count every minute! First… first Lovelace, then Hilbert and Maxwell! That’s half of the fucking crew, Michael!”

“I know! I know! What the fuck!”

Eventually, the episode ends.

“Wait,” Louisa says. “Wait, I thought that was the season three finale.”

Michael furrows his brow. “I did too- oh shit, there’s another one.”

“ _Literally what else can possibly happen_?”

* * *

“Oh,” Louisa says.

“Well,” Michael agrees.

“I guess that can happen.”

“I guess?”

Louisa puts her head in her hands. “I hate this fucking show,” she says.

**Author's Note:**

> will make a part two soon! i was going to go into detail about season 4, but that would make it fairly long, so i figured it would just leave it as is for now. come talk to me on twitter @lcvelaces! pls leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed <3


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